


i was looking at his hand

by catbeans



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21992740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catbeans/pseuds/catbeans
Summary: “You can still see the glass it left sometimes.”Neither of them said anything for a minute, the rest of their food forgotten while the suns crept lower and the shadows crept longer, until Han felt Luke take a deep breath at his side.“Right over there.”Han followed Luke’s gesture across from the suns to the slope, a faint shimmer behind it that glowed brighter to match the suns as they sank to just the right angle; Han only saw it behind Luke’s hand.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	i was looking at his hand

**Author's Note:**

> BASICALLY  
> -tatooine came up in the mandalorian (no spoilers here except for like one shot in episode 5 that i thought looked cool and doesnt really have any other involvement in the show)  
> -i start getting emotional  
> -i watch a new hope and continue to get more emotional with luke and those nice scenery shots with the suns and everything  
> -i remembered "he was pointing at the moon but i was pointing at his hand" and just absolutely lost my mind

The heat beat down hot from the suns and radiating up from the sand, the sloping, dusty horizon hazy and shimmery as they trudged back to their speeders.

Luke had been quiet, brief and to the point when he wasn’t, through the entire ride and the short trip from the Falcon to Mos Eisley. Their mark couldn’t be expected back until late enough that it felt risky to wait there.

It had started in the briefing and hadn’t gotten much better; Luke hadn’t moved enough for anyone else to notice, just his eyes snapping up at the mention of Tatooine with his hand reaching to volunteer only a few seconds later. He was familiar, knew enough of the who and where more closely than just a file, he had said, and everyone had agreed.

Han still hadn’t gotten more than a few words out of him that weren’t about the mission, however quick and simple it was.

“I’m just gonna…” he said, tapping his knuckles to Luke’s arm and nodding towards a stall. “Do you want anything?”

“Whatever you’re getting.”

Han nodded and took out a few spare credits.

Luke wandered a little, glancing back to check that he could still see Han through the stalls and between the squat buildings; those had stayed the same, mostly, a couple new occupants, a couple abandoned, more worn than he had remembered. There wasn’t the same tightness to the air carried in on Imperial ships and Stormtroopers. It didn’t feel entirely as familiar as he had thought it would.

He looked back again, Han still waiting on something sizzling, before he turned the corner and stopped.

Han took his two boxes from across the counter, frowning for a second when he turned back around, before following where he had seen Luke out of the corner of his eye. The ruthless suns had become at least a little less glaring, stretching the shadow of Luke’s head around the corner to the left to tell Han where to go.

“I got us a couple…”

He trailed off; Luke didn’t turn yet from the uneven row of Stormtrooper helmets jammed to the top of stakes high enough that Luke had to tilt his head up, lips parted slightly with a look in his eye that Han couldn’t place.

“This would have gotten you killed before.”

Han swallowed.

Luke’s shoulders lifted and lowered again on a deep breath, the first real movement Han had seen from him since he had come around the corner, before he turned away from the stakes with a hand out to take one of the boxes from Han.

“Thanks.”

Han tried not to stare too obviously; the corner of Luke’s mouth was turned up just a little as they started walking again to their speeders.

They packed the boxes into the side pouches, dusty sand kicking up after them as they skated over the dunes to the dot of the Falcon up ahead of them. The motor of Han’s speeder wheezed pleadingly under his legs with the strain it took to keep up with Luke.

He hadn’t quite caught up yet when Luke hopped off, trudging around to the side to pull down the side ladder while Han followed him up. Luke tentatively patted the top of the ship with his left hand, cool enough to sit on, a while in the shade cast by a tall slope to their right; Luke’s box still hovered a few inches above the ship while he got himself settled with Han next to him.

His eyes weren’t focused enough to not be thinking about something else as he popped open the lid.

“I got us a deal,” Han said, lightly nudging his shoulder against Luke’s, but without much response past a nod and a bite, “Are you doing okay?”

Luke swallowed, his hand lowering to his lap while he thought for a second. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect.”

Han bit back a frown.

“It’s different,” Luke continued. “I suppose I thought it might  _ look _ more different. I don’t know.”

Han nodded and took another bite.

He hadn’t been on Tatooine often or long enough to get the same feel for it that Luke had, but there was a layer of tension that had eased, the helmets, Luke commenting what would have happened another time. It felt more different than it looked.

“Don’t think anyone’s complaining about what’s missing,” Han tried to say encouragingly.

Luke huffed, close to a laugh but not as close as Han would have hoped for.

“That’s kind of it,” Luke said, a bite and a deep breath before he added, “It would have been nice to see it.”

Han’s shoulders sagged a little.

It would have been nice for more than just him; Han hadn’t thought much of it earlier, mapping out where would be best to land discreetly, when Luke’s mouth had pressed tight for a second as he scrolled past an empty square of desert. It hadn’t always been empty, Han thought then.

“Everything goes how we’re hoping,” Han said, “we won’t be in too much of a hurry. We could a little.”

Luke’s eyebrows twitched almost too faintly for Han to notice before he looked up at him, then off to the side for a second, a nod. “We could.”

The suns setting tinted his hair a little pink.

“What do you wanna see?”

Luke lowered his hands to his lap again from another bite, leaning just slightly against Han’s side as he chewed and thought for a minute before he snorted.

“What?”

“I might be curious about the Cantina.”

Han grinned and nudged his elbow at Luke’s arm. “Yeah?”

Luke shrugged, a couple seconds of silence. “There was a cliff, I’m not sure it would still be there.”

Han raised an eyebrow.

“It wore down more every year,” Luke explained. “You could almost see Mos Eisley from the top, at least then.”

Han didn’t realize he was staring until Luke glanced back from the horizon to him.

“How far’s that?”

Luke’s nose wrinkled while he thought for a second, his knee bumping Han’s as he twisted around before pointing to their left. “It’s not too long that way. The one with the caves?”

“The caves.”

“Mm.” Luke took another bite. “I got lost once.”

Han had to bite the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t picture the caves, but he could picture Luke, his hair still tinged lighter from the suns and his cheeks a little softer wandering around in the dark.

“I’ll try to remember where we’re going.”

Luke’s eyes crinkled at the corners before he looked up. 

“Oh.”

“What?”

“There’s…” Luke turned, the other side, pointing over to another swoop of dunes. “There was a storm once—there weren’t many—and there was a lightning strike over  _ there, _ and I think it’s the right time of year…”

Han watched while Luke twisted again, craning his neck a little to get a better look at the suns setting; the sky had gone from its pale blue to a dusty orange seeping from yellow to pink behind Luke’s head, darker farther back, before Luke pointed again.

“You can still see the glass it left sometimes.”

Neither of them said anything for a minute, the rest of their food forgotten while the suns crept lower and the shadows crept longer, until Han felt Luke take a deep breath at his side.

“Right over there.”

Han followed Luke’s gesture across from the suns to the slope, a faint shimmer behind it that glowed brighter to match the suns as they sank to just the right angle; Han only saw it behind Luke’s hand.

The edge of his mouth was turned up slightly, his eyes and his expression soft, a couple crumbs on his sleeve before he lowered his arm.

“You have, uh…”

“Oh.” Luke glanced down and brushed off his sleeve, right back up to the shimmer. “Thank you.”

Luke kept watching it, and Han kept watching Luke.

The shimmer had almost disappeared with the suns when Luke’s com pinged in his pocket, quickly finishing his last couple bites before he tapped it to turn off the alarm.

“We should be getting back.”

Han climbed down first, closest to the ladder, checking that the light on his speeder was working before he climbed on. “Don’t forget about those caves.”

Luke’s eyes crinkled again as he kicked off and sped ahead of Han.

Han’s speeder sputtered and croaked as it desperately tried to make it the rest of the way to the Falcon, his shoulder tight from keeping it from veering slightly to the left; Luke was already waiting by the loading ramp with his hood pulled up against the chill that had dropped over them while they were back at Mos Eisley.

The back of the speeder felt a little hot under Han’s hand when he got off with a frown. “They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel sending us with these.”

“Because they wouldn’t get stolen the moment we turned around.”

Han huffed and pulled his shirt collar a little higher.

Luke turned his speeder to neutral, about to push it up the loading ramp before, “Think we still got time?”

Luke’s eyebrows twitched up.

“We can share,” Han added.

Luke thought for a second before he nodded and stepped away from the loading ramp.

“One second.”

Han pushed his speeder up and into the storage room he had cleared out, to his bunk to get a sweater and a jacket before back out to Luke.

Luke was leaning against his speeder with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, squinting slightly off to the side towards where he had pointed earlier. Han thought again about him  _ before, _ in the caves, the contrast almost more obvious with the looser pale shirt and pants to keep the suns off of him rather than the sleeker, darker colors he had taken to since then. It was easier to see how he had gotten more solid, too; Han’s heart thudded a little.

Luke glanced down at the extra layers Han had put on, the corner of his mouth quirking up before he switched on the speeder and got up into the seat.

“Yeah, I know you said.”

Luke pulled his hood a little tighter around his neck. “I wasn’t exaggerating about when it gets dark,” he said as Han got on behind him. “I can’t see a thing…”

Han leaned back slightly while Luke dug through his bag, holding his hood back to pull on a pair of goggles that switched on with a faint buzz.

“Hang on.”

Han tugged the strap from where it had started to tangle in Luke’s hair.

“You’re good.”

Luke pulled his hood back up when Han gave a light squeeze with his arms around Luke’s belly, and Han was glad that he had done it when Luke  _ tore _ off without any other warning.

Han bit back a yelp, barely remembering to keep his arms loose enough for Luke to breathe with the wind racing through his hair and threatening to bowl him over. Luke’s speeder didn’t feel much better than his had, at least a steadier rumbling, noisy enough that he could only feel the laugh under his arms when they skidded around a turn.

That didn’t seem to have changed much.

Han squinted against the wind behind Luke’s shoulder, his nose pressed to Luke’s hood with the slight cushion of his hair as they flew over the lower dunes around the occasional sharp, jutting rocks that Han could only see once they were close enough to look like they might crash; it didn’t take much longer with the speed Luke had quickly picked up until he started to slow down, a couple minutes looking off to their right before he stopped and tapped Han’s hand.

Han hadn’t realized how stiff his arms had gotten with how tightly he had been holding onto Luke. Luke got off first, his hair sticking up a little when he took off the goggles to put back in his bag before he nodded towards a steep hill.

“It’s this way.”

Han hadn’t noticed with his face behind Luke’s head two of Tatooine’s three moons inching higher into the sky, the last not far behind them, he figured; the faint light bouncing off from them cast the sand to a bluish-white, crunching slightly under Luke’s boots as he led Han up to where the hill eventually began to flatten out.

Luke took the goggles out again, to his eyes but without the strap over his head as he looked from the left to the right.

_ “There.” _

Luke waited with a quick tap to his hip while Han crossed the last few steps to catch up with him.

“Something we need to worry about?”

“I don’t think so.”

Han raised an eyebrow, but Luke just shrugged and gestured to a darker spot against the rock wall ahead of them.

Luke’s posture was loose and unworried when he took out his lightsaber, holding it out for the glow as he slowed slightly past the entrance to the cave. It wasn’t wide, blue-tinted walls easy to see and scraggly the farther they walked, untouched by the wind. 

Han could only see the speck of the opening when he glanced back and almost bumped into Luke.

“If you go that way, I think,” he said, gesturing with his lightsaber to where the cave split at the right, “it’ll take you all over the place.”

“That where you got lost?”

Luke’s mouth pressed into a flat frown that didn’t make it to his eyes.

“What about there?”

Luke’s head tilted slightly to the side as he looked to the left of the split. “I don’t know. The last time I was here, it sounded like something was living down there.”

“And you didn’t even go check.”

“I wanted to, no one else I was with did.”

Luke looked back when Han huffed a laugh, back again to where the cave continued while he thought for a second.

“I don’t think any farther would be the best idea.”

“Mm.” Han took a step back to lean against the wall, arms crossed over his chest; the chill was still sinking through a little. “What’d you even do down here?”

Luke shrugged and lowered his lightsaber, flicking a clump of sand from his sleeve. “It seemed more exciting before. Mostly, uh…” He shrugged again and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “Spice if anyone had any. Some messing around. I knew someone who tried camping here once but that didn’t last the night.”

Han raised an eyebrow, glancing down to make sure he wouldn’t bump Luke’s lightsaber as he reached over with a little tug to Luke’s belt. “Messing around.”

The cave went dark with a soft  _ click _ after just enough time to see Luke smiling as he followed the tug.

Luke hooked his lightsaber back to his belt with his free hand at Han’s shoulder; Han couldn’t see him come closer, just the faint puff of breath at his chin before Luke leaned in the rest of the way. The startle at how heavy the dark was melted away with the kiss and a little shiver, Luke’s natural hand warm at the back of his neck, the other down to Han’s waist. 

Han forgot about the chill with the cold wall at his back and Luke taking most of his attention away.

Luke shivered and pressed a little closer at Han’s hands slipping down to his hips, his fingertips twitching in the hair at the nape of his neck, but, “It’ll be getting late.”

Han wound his arms snug around Luke’s waist. “Mhm.”

**Author's Note:**

> idk what they were doing and thats not what im here for right now anyway. im here to be sappy  
> @hansolosbi on tumblr


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